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Will the demolished King Street cinema site become Labour’s money pit?

The redevelopment of the Hammersmith Town Hall extension and the surrounding site is in chaos.

I understand that for many months the Council refused to meet its “development partners” King Street Developments Ltd – despite growing concerns about the viability of the project. I have emailed the Council to seek confirmation of this:

Now the plug has been pulled. But why did the Council wait until the cinema in King Street (a long standing and much loved local landmark) next to the town hall had been demolished? As it is we are left with a prominently located bomb site for the indefinite future

There will now be uncertainty, the risk of expensive litigation from the developer and delay over what a new scheme could bring. Given the Council’s enthusiasm for tower blocks there can be little confidence it will be anything attractive. Meanwhile the hideous Town Hall extension (which includes the planning department) continues to deteriorate and will need increasingly heavy maintenance spending to stop the windows falling out.

The scheme was supposed to provide the Council with £10 million in savings instead it will cost money – probably rather a lot. Will the Council buy the cinema site from the developers? How much will that cost?

What a complete mess. Labour’s giant money pit. At the last council elections they promised to save the cinema but their revisions to the scheme still resulted in demolition. Complete mismanagement that has left us in the worst people state of affairs.

The council leader constantly claims what a good deal he gets out of property developers by being “tough” with them. But in this case at least his refusal to even talk to them looks rather stupid. An expensive mistake – which the rest of us will have to pay for.